A website called NextDoor connects with the app, meant to provide a safe way to communicate with those living around you. (WFSB)

HARTFORD, CT (WFSB) -

If you don’t know the name of your next-door neighbor, you’re not alone.

About 28 percent of people in the United States don’t, which is why a neighborhood app was created, and it has taken off in neighborhoods throughout Hartford County.

A website called NextDoor connects with the app, meant to provide a safe way to communicate with those living around you.

“It's a good way to alert people if you have a small dog outside or if kids are coming home on the bus, if they put that alert out with a picture or without and come through on your phone as an alert,” said Sarah Calatayud, who is a NextDoor user.

Neighbors said they have used the app for many reasons, like when they noticed vandalism in the area.

“Yards being driven through, mailboxes being knocked down. One woman said her pool at 200 gallons of water was missing...but because they banded together and reported it on NextDoor what was happening, it gave police a nice log of everything,” Calatayud said.

Users also have the app to advertise events, like a school function or local elections, and even to sell items like furniture.

Calatayud lives in Avon and said the app has also been extremely useful, especially with their black bear population.

“We regularly have bears in the yards, crossing the street and getting into the trash,” Calatayud said.

NextDoor doesn’t advertise, which is why many may not have heard about it, but for those who have, almost 300 neighborhoods around Hartford have signed up.

For more information on NextDoor or to see if your neighborhood is listed, click here.